Airbags and airbag systems are known in the art and are now standard on motor vehicles. These airbag systems generally are designed such that in the event of an accident or a crash, an inflatable airbag will become positioned in front of a vehicle occupant and will prevent the vehicle occupant from harmful impact with a portion of the vehicle interior. As is known in the art, airbags are currently added to the vehicle's steering wheel, dashboard, and/or at other locations within the vehicle. The inclusion of these airbag systems within motor vehicles have been credited with saving many lives and preventing many injuries.
In order to inflate the airbag during a crash, an airbag inflator is often used. The airbag inflator is a device that will produce and/or channel a large quantity of inflation gas into the airbag upon activation. Some inflators include a supply of a pyrotechnic (gas generating) material housed within the inflator. Upon activation, the pyrotechnic material will ignite and will produce a quantity of inflation gas that may be used to deploy the airbag.
As vehicle airbags have become larger and more complex, it has become necessary, in certain situations, to use larger, more complex inflators in order to provide a quantity of gas sufficient to rapidly deploy the airbag. This requirement for larger, more complex inflators is especially prevalent in front seat passenger, dashboard mounted airbag systems. Unfortunately, the use of such large and complex airbag inflators is often very expensive and greatly increases the overall cost of the airbag system.
In many embodiments, these large, complex inflators will often have a multiplicity of small components that must be assembled as part of the airbag inflator. Assembly of these small, complex components is often difficult and increases the manufacturing costs. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a new type of airbag inflator that is simple, small, and may be inexpensively and easily manufactured. Such a device is disclosed herein.